Mick McCarthy hails Harry Wilson response to being on the bench in Cardiff draw

Posted Sunday, January 31, 2021 by PA

Cardiff boss Mick McCarthy believes he got the perfect response from Harry Wilson after he made an impact off the bench in the 1-1 draw with Millwall.

The Wales star was brought into the action just after the hour mark and added his creative spark to set up Kieffer Moore’s second-half equaliser.

The Bluebirds striker’s 10th goal of the season came after a series of defensive errors put the home side on the back foot in the ninth minute.

Sean Morrison headed a long ball forward straight into the path of Jed Wallace, who surged down the left flank and attempted to play the ball across the face of goal.

Flint got back to cut out the cross, but only succeeded in putting the ball past Alex Smithies and into his own goal.

“I know Harry has been a starter and there was some surprise that he hasn’t played, but I loved his reaction of coming on and creating that goal,” McCarthy said.

“He’s a talented lad who can play a number of positions. We were behind in the game and had to change something. Harry went on and created problems from in behind the front two.

“The best I’ve seen him play is wide right cutting on to his left foot, he’s talented and he’s done well today, that’s for sure.

“I think we played well, we got off to a difficult start, the ball was swirling around, Sean Morrison got his head to it and it went in play.

“We ended up giving a real sloppy own goal away, having had a decent start and then they had to react to it which they did.

“Apart from their chance with (Kenneth) Zohore, we had the best of it and certainly deserved a point.”

Millwall are now unbeaten in three Championship matches but assistant manager Adam Barrett was frustrated not to take all three points.

“We dealt with their threat excellently and the guys defended very, very well and we looked a real threat on the counter-attack, which is where the goal came from,” he said.

“We were delighted to be 1-0 up and the frustrating thing is that we created some glorious opportunities to take the game away from them.

“We made one mistake, gave the ball away in the middle of the pitch and we got punished for it.

“We’re frustrated because it’s a game we thought we should be getting three points from.

“But it’s the story of our season really, we were relatively solid at the back, hard to break down and we got ourselves into good areas and created some great opportunities but we haven’t taken them and it’s costing us wins.

“If you ask Ken about the chances, he will say he should have taken them, he’s disappointed with the first one and the goalkeeper has turned the second one around the post.”